New Orleans civil service panel dithers on 'bumping rule' changes

As city officials attempt to iron out next year's budget amid shrinking revenue projections, the Civil Service Commission has yet to deal with a request from Mayor Mitch Landrieu to amend the controversial "bumping rule."

The Times-Picayune archiveNew Orleans City Hall

The commission has postponed a vote on the matter twice, and it doesn't appear poised to take it up when it meets today, despite the potential impact it could have if Landrieu proposes laying off city employees. The mayor is scheduled to present his 2012 budget proposal to the City Council next month.

The current policy allows workers who are laid off to "bump" employees in similar jobs -- but with less seniority -- anywhere in city government, as long as they have the same job performance rating. Landrieu, however, wants to limit bumping to jobs within the same department.

With health care premiums and other costs rising, department directors in many cases have been instructed to shave significant spending from their bottom lines in 2012.

That task could involve personnel cuts, according to Landrieu's top aide, Andy Kopplin. Kopplin has called the current bumping policy "wasteful and inefficient" because it guarantees a senior worker a job in an unfamiliar department while displacing an experienced employee.

"The most important issue for us is not whether there's an isolated bumping rule," he said last week. "The issue is whether or not you can reorganize a department and job descriptions to match the reality of where we want to go."

Meanwhile, the reason for the commission's delay in taking up the issue is a matter of debate in itself. Kopplin said the topic remains tabled because mayoral staffers and city employees are trying to hammer out a compromise.

"The good news is that we've been having a lot of negotiations with the staff, and so we're trying to arrive at a consensus that both of us could support," Kopplin said.

"That was the instruction that the commissioners gave their staff was to work with us and other interested organizations, and we've had a couple of meetings and we'll continue to work on that," he said.

But Personnel Director Lisa Hudson, the top bureaucrat working for the commission, said no such discussions have occurred.

"I wouldn't necessarily describe it that way," she said. "(Kopplin) kind of mentioned to me that he would like to enter negotiations with us on the bumping rule, but I told him I would have to check with our commissioners on that."

Hudson added that rank-and-file workers outside her department also want to engage with the administration.

"I think there's some concern from the employees that they were told they would actually be part of those conversations, so I need to figure that out," Hudson said.

A vote on the mayor's proposal, which has stirred controversy among employees concerned it could pave the way for mass firings, was initially set for June 8 but was postponed by Kopplin, who said he wanted time to allay employees' fears.

The commission again deferred the issue at its June 30 meeting after employees spent two hours lambasting the mayor's plan. Officials said they would revisit the matter as soon as this month.